Warrior woman

Fashion’s fascination with the grim and the glamorous, the pain and pleasure of modern Africa, was evident in London last week.

Jasper Conran, the British designer, who launched his first womenswear collection in 1978, celebrated his 25th anniversary on the catwalk at London Fashion Week with an exotic, African-inspired extravaganza.

From the warrior woman fantasies in metal and silk to the grand entrance gowns in voodoo-print chiffons, the collection was a master class in ethnic elegance and style.

Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek, two of the world’s top models, led the spring-summer 2004 collection.

Lady Sarah Chatto, whose bridal gown for her wedding in July 1994 was designed by Conran, joined an enthusiastic front row crowd, including Mary Quant, Lucy Ferry, Jane Asher, Andrea Dellal, Suzanna Wyman, Penelope Tree, Bryan Adams and Suggs from the band Madness.

Conran’s imaginary journey through the continent of Africa gave rise to coconut-print shorts-suits, safari-style halter-necks and string bikinis in a lush palette of cocoa, tobacco and white.

Smock-dresses and tunics in Masai and Kassena tribal-prints, caught at the neck with discs of wood or a halter of perforated leather, billowed out to the ankle. Plunge-neck column-gowns in giraffe prints were linked at the decolletage with silver, or slung with studded leather belts.

Warrior woman breastplates in beaten copper and silver, worn with ebony silk jersey skirts or Zanzibar-print voile djellabas which floated behind the models in storm-clouds of chiffon, were the epitome of bizarre beauty.

The designer-activist Katharine Hamnett led Campbell down the catwalk, wearing shorts and a cropped top which spelled out the safe-sex message “wear a condom” in diamante.

Hamnett, who has campaigned for safe sex since the 1980s, when she put condom pockets on underpants, has teamed with Oxfam in its campaign to raise awareness and break HIV-related taboos in the developing world.

Backing Oxfam’s bleak message that 40 million people around the world are infected by HIV-AIDS, 28 million of them living in Africa, Hamnett said: “If we don’t do something about it, it will mean the extinction of Africa.”

Her chiffon wench-dresses, satin robes and cotton trench-coats, were accompanied by a range of safe sex T-shirts, which the models wore tied around their hips or as strapless smocks.

Campbell, the “face” of the campaign, said her support was an extension of her work for Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund.